Dancing with the Time Lord
by Meldirieth
Summary: Can the Doctor refuse to dance with Sarah Jane Smith? 4th story of "The Lonely Star" series.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Doctor Who. Doctor Who is owned by the BBC.

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The Doctor was in the TARDIS, walking from side to side in the console room. They had gone to Earth to visit their friends from UNIT when the Brigadier appeared with invitations to a formal dance that a high political office celebrated that night in his house. Although at first the Doctor thought reject the invitation, Sarah seemed very excited about going to the dance, so he finally accepted. Now he was waiting for the girl finished dressing.

Sarah entered the console room dressed in an elegant black dress with strapless neckline and her long hair in a discreet bun.

"How I look?", she said as she turned on herself so that the Doctor could see her full outfit.

"Lovely. Let's go", it was his answer.

"If you have not even looked at me", Sarah said disappointed.

Yes, he had looked at her. The Doctor only needed a rapid glance for not to be able to take off his mind how beautiful his companion was.

"And you could have dressed in something more appropriate", Sarah continued to see that her friend was wearing the same clothes.

"I am wearing my best shirt and my best hat", he said while they both went out of the door.

When they reached the house of the politician they saw Harry Sullivan and the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart that were awaited them at the door, they both elegantly dressed in a tuxedo.

The two members of UNIT greeted the Doctor and Sarah Jane.

"You are very beautiful, Miss Smith", the Brigadier said.

"Thanks. You are also very elegant, Brigadier. And you too, Harry".

"Thanks, old girl, but it seems that someone forgot to change clothes", Harry said looking at the Doctor.

"Oh, what are you saying, Harry? He is wearing his best shirt and his best hat!", Sarah said mockingly.

The young woman hardly hid that she had liked to see the Time Lord wearing an elegant suit.

"If you have finished joking about me, let's go inside. The sooner we go in before we will leave", the Doctor said walking towards the entrance of the mansion.

That was the greatest and most beautiful house in which Sarah had never been. Though after living in the TARDIS the size of the mansion not impressed her at all, she was quite sure that she could never afford a house like that.

The ballroom was filled with elegant people who danced to the waltz music that a band was playing. Sarah's eyes sparkled excited before the spectacle. The journalist took the Doctor's hand.

"Doctor, dance with me", she told her friend.

"No thanks, Sarah. I do not fancy".

"Just a dance. If you cannot dance I can teach you", the girl insisted.

"I do not dance, Sarah. I'm the Doctor, not the Dancer".

"Okay. I do not need you to have fun. Let's dance, Harry!", Sarah said dragging the young Sullivan to the dance floor.

"I think you have been a little rude with Miss Smith", the Brigadier said the Doctor.

"Oh, it is all right. Soon she will have forgotten", he said as he looked at Sarah teaching Harry dance steps.

The night passed too boring for the Doctor, who had to put up with the Brigadier stories about everything that had happened since he left UNIT: giant insects, carnivorous plants, aliens with eyes in their hands... he only heard 'blah blah blah'. While nodding occasionally to pretend a little interest, he could not look away from Sarah.

The girl was having fun on the dance floor with Harry. From where he was he could see the sparkle in her eyes, eyes that looked at Harry, and he could see her radiant smile, also dedicated to Harry. If he had agreed to dance with her that wonderful smile would be just for him.

"Doctor ... Doctor, are you listening?".

"Mmmm?".

"Do you want to dance?", the Brigadier asked.

"Alistair, I am flattered, but you are not my type", the Doctor said with a smile.

"Not with me, with Miss Smith! You have not stopped looking at her since she went to dance with Sullivan".

"I care about her. Harry is very clumsy and at any time he could make her stumble and fall", the Doctor said.

"Miss Smith can take care of herself, and it seems she is a good dance teacher. Why don't you ask her for dance? Sure you will make her very happy".

The Doctor shook his head and continued looking at his friends. Harry had to have made some funny comment, because Sarah started laughing. They made a nice couple together and it seemed like they were intimating much in one night. He knew what that meant: when his companions were in love, they left him. He had already lived that situation with Vicki, Jo, and even with his own granddaughter, Susan.

He was glad that his friends were happy, of course, but he had very fond of the journalist and he could not imagine life without her.

They were at a party, it was a time for fun and games with no more worries that receive a stomp of a clumsy dancer, but the Doctor felt sadness in his hearts. Today he could lose his best friend for having refused a dance with her. A damned dance... Why did he do it?".


	2. Chapter 2

The party finally ended. The Brigadier had said goodbye to them and went home, but Harry was accompanying them to the TARDIS, and Sarah was clutching his arm, still laughing together.

The Doctor opened the door of the ship and waited in silence the bitter parting of Sarah Jane.

"Thank you, Harry. I have spent a wonderful night", Sarah said hugging Harry.

"I have sacrificed my feet in the name of friendship", Harry said.

"Nonsense. A couple of lessons more and you'll be quite a dancer".

"A couple of lessons more and the Brigadier will have to find another Surgeon Lieutenant", Harry said. "Bon Voyage, Doctor. I hope we meet again soon".

"Good night, Harry", the Doctor said.

To his surprise Harry went alone to his house and Sarah went into the TARDIS. Smiling, the Time Lord went into the ship behind his friend and established the coordinates of their next destination, but something was wrong. It seemed that Sarah was angry.

"What is it, Sarah? Do you want to stay?", he asked concerned as he hung his hat on the coat stand.

"You owe me a dance, Doctor", she replied.

"A dance? Is that all?".

"Yeah, that is all".

"Okay then", the Doctor said taking her hand and leading her to the library. "We will have enough space here".

"Now?", Sarah asked surprised.

"Let's take advantage you are dressed for the occasion", he said with a wink. "Here I have the music section. Choose the disc you want", he said showing her a wide shelving.

"Doctor, these are alien bands. How I am going to know what is the most appropriate disc?".

"This is the section of ballads and slow music. Choose the first one you see".

"This one", Sarah said choosing a single disc from a group called 'Eclipse' whose song was called 'Eternal love'.

"This song is nothing like a waltz, but it will do".

The Doctor took off his coat and scarf and put the disc in what looked like an earth gramophone. Sarah could not help smiling to see that old gramophone in an alien ship.

"I like the look of your gramophones", the Doctor said to see the face of his friend.

"I have not said anything", she said.

The first notes of the song, from an electric guitar, started to sound and the Doctor held out his hand to Sarah to join him in the dance.

Sarah had chosen a hard rock ballad, but if she told the Doctor to change it he was able to leave the dance, so she decided to take a chance on that song and set out to teach her friend a few simple dance steps. She took the Doctor's left hand and put her right hand on his shoulder, and to her surprise the Doctor put his right hand on her waist and began moving deftly through the makeshift dance floor.

"You can dance!", Sarah Jane exclaimed.

"I said I am not a dancer, but I never said I could not dance".

"Doctor, you never stop to amaze me".

The Doctor smiled at his friend while the song kept sounding. It was about the forbidden love between two people of different species.

"Very appropriate", the Doctor thought.

_"I do not care that you're different_

_That makes you special_

_I do not care if the others do not approve it_

_Our eternal love will never die"_

Sarah looked at her companion's eyes and smiled. It was not like the smile she had dedicated to Harry moments before. It was not an amused smile; it was a loving and tender smile that the Doctor corresponded in the same way.

The girl slowed her dance steps doing the Doctor did the same and let go of his left hand to put both hands on his shoulders and lay her head on his chest. The Doctor hugged her waist with his both arms, feeling the warm hug of the young girl and regretting that his body was so cold, but if Sarah was uncomfortable with his hug she gave no sign of wanting to let go of him.

That sign of affection from his young friend made the Doctor smile of happiness. He was dancing with Sarah Jane. He was hugging Sarah Jane. He could smell the sweet fruit aroma of her hair. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment.

Sarah felt the Doctor's hearts were racing and smiled at the same time she curled up her head over his chest. Now she was glad that her dance with the Time Lord took place in a private room: the Doctor and Sarah Jane joined in a tender embrace in the TARDIS. This moment belonged only to both of them.

The song went on.

_"Your love is a gift for me._

_My life was empty until I met you._

_My beautiful lady_

_I want nothing to separate me from you"._

For a moment, time seemed to stop: A moment without Daleks, Cybermen or Zygons. A moment in which there were no barriers between they two. A moment that served to prove the mutual affection they felt each other...

A brief moment that ended when the song came to a close.

"No, not now", they both thought simultaneously.

"It is a very beautiful song, Doctor", Sarah said moving away slowly from the body of her friend. "But it does not say if the couple had a happy ending".

"I guess they leave it to the interpretation of the listener".

"Then they have a happy ending. Real life is too cruel… let the songs have happy ending".

"I agree", the Doctor said.

"Thank you. It has been a wonderful dance".

"Are you still angry?", the Doctor asked.

Sarah shook her head.

"I do not need much to be happy".

"What do you need to be happy right now?", the Doctor asked.

"Right now? A good piece of chocolate cake".

The Doctor smiled.

"I have in the kitchen".

"Well. Are you coming? I'll make some tea".

"Now I am going with you".

Sarah left the library toward the kitchen and the Doctor saved the disc in its case. Five minutes and forty seconds was the duration of the song: a very short time. With a few more minutes he could have approached little by little his lips to the girl's and hopefully she had approximated hers...

The Doctor shook his head.

For this reason he had refused to dance with the journalist at the mansion: he was too close to the girl. All experiences together, the times they had saved each other, the times that Sarah had wept for him, laughed with him, all this had brought him to a point where his affection for her went beyond mere friendship, and now that close and sweet contact was just what he needed for that the feelings he kept inside came to light. He was thinking about Sarah like something more than his best friend and it could not be. Happy endings are only for songs and fairy tales. The real world is cruel and a relationship between a Time Lord and a human could never work.

In one way he was glad to know that Sarah did not feel the same for him.

The Doctor took his coat and scarf and went to meet Sarah in the kitchen. He was an expert in the art of hide and with luck he would return to bury his love for Sarah Jane without her noticing anything unusual in him.

But...Was that what he wanted?

The End


End file.
